FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - A Traditional Winter Warmer

As some of you are aware, around this time every year I start making a little drink to enjoy over the Christmas season - ginger whisky. It's a gorgeous winter warmer that doesn't take very long to prepare, but does need a fair bit of time to make, for it is a drink that needs to sit and mature for some time. So then, every year at some point in September, as the first signs of autumn are appearing, I gather the ingredients together and make a batch or two. 

This traditional winter warmer is very simple to make, and the trickiest bit is having a little patience! But breaking with the modern way of giving out a recipe online, I'm not going to lumber you with sixty paragraphs of pointless blather that you have to scroll through to get to the ruddy recipe. So here we go! 

First of all, let's gather everything we need together! 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 litre of whisky (any cheap whisky will do)
• 2 jars of stem ginger in syrup (about 600g to 700g in total)
• Fresh ginger (approx. 1 to 2 inches of root)
• A cinnamon stick or powdered cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of brown sugar

As jars of stem ginger can be pricey and sometimes hard to find, I have found that you can replace the stem ginger with around 5 to 6 inches of ginger root and about 300g of a good quality honey (or 500g of a cheaper one). 

Also, if you prefer, you can switch the whisky for brandy, and get an equally delicious winter warmer. Indeed since first experimenting with making a ginger brandy, I normally whip up a batch of both. 

EQUIPMENT

• A 1.5 litre Kilner jar or similar sealable air tight container
• A sharp knife (careful now!)
• A sieve
• Some empty bottles
• A sheet of muslin and/or coffee filter paper
• Patience

1) Firstly - and this is very important - scald your jars with boiling hot water and make sure they are thoroughly clean. And if you are using an old jar, do remember to check the seal is still in good working order, for we need the container to be airtight. To ensure they are completely sterilised, remove the seals and place them onto a baking tray. Then pop them into an oven preheated to 140C/120C Fan/Gas 1 for 20 minutes. For the rubber seals, place them in a pan of boiling water and boil for 3 minutes to sterilise. Afterwards, thoroughly dry them and they are good to go! 

2) Next, using a little sieve, strain off the syrup from the stem ginger into your jar. Handy hint - once you have taken the ginger out ready for step 3), screw the lids back on the jar and leave them upside down for a while. This will allow the syrup coating the insides of the jars to collect in the lids. You can often get another couple of tablespoons-worth of syrup by doing this! 

 3) Chop up the stem ginger into small pieces of roughly 1 cm square, and add to the jar. Now you can skip this bit, but I have found over the years, chopping the ginger into small pieces adds more flavour to the finished drink. Do take care when doing this, as the syrup coating the ginger does make it slippery! This recipe is NOT improved by the addition of blood and severed fingers. 

4) Peel your fresh ginger. Handy hint - using the back of a spoon is often better than a knife or peeler! Then slice the ginger into small chunks of about 1 cm square. Then add them to the jar too. 

5) Sprinkle in two teaspoons of brown sugar

6) Then pour in your whisky. And I will stress again here, that most bargain basement whisky will work just fine for this recipe. For heaven's sakes, don't use a proper malt for this! 

7) Break up a small cinnamon stick and put it into the jar. Or alternatively add a dash of powdered cinnamon, But be warned, using powdered cinnamon does make the later straining of the drink a bit trickier! 

8) Seal the jar, and give the mixture a good shake to mix everything together. 

9) Finally - and this is the really tricky bit - leave it for at least six weeks! Occasionally give it a shake, but otherwise leave it alone! Generally I make my ginger whisky around the Autumn Equinox and only open it around the Winter Solstice, just in time for Christmas! 

10) When you open it, place a piece of muslin or a paper coffee filter (for the best results, or both) into a sieve and drain the ginger whisky into a jug. If after straining and filtering it remains slightly cloudy, this is perfectly normal. However if it remains a bit too cloudy, strain it again. Then decant your winter warmer into bottles. 

11) Finally drink and enjoy! Ginger whisky may be drunk neat. Or it's very nice on the rocks too. Alternatively it may be added to coffee or hot chocolate to add an extra warming glow to your drink!